Geralt’s guardians on the Nintendo Switch were gifted a generous mechanic today – one which allowed a computer save to be transferred across to the handheld device. That obviously allows them to continue their adventure anywhere they want, thanks to the console’s portability. But unfortunately the same feature won’t be coming to the PlayStation 4.
Now, it’s true that it isn’t portable, sharing a lot more in common with the ‘personal computer’ than Nintendo’s hardware. But the ability to switch formats on the fly would be a nice addition, nonetheless, for those gamers who do own more than one version of The Witcher 3. It shouldn’t be too difficult to implement, either.
Just in case your living in hope that things will change in the future, I must report that the development team themselves have said that that will not be the case. In fact, the whole concept was specifically designed for the Switch – they apparently worked closely with the team at Saber Interactive to make the functionality work. But a spokesperson for CD Projekt RED said “there are no plans” to bring the functionality to “the other versions of The Witcher 3“. So, that’s that.
Looking at it tactically, it isn’t hard to realise that it could be considered a marketing ploy. A tactic to encourage a certain proportion of the audience to “double dip”. And a means of providing the justification for spending the extra money by buying the same game twice. But with the sheer popularity of the Switch, wouldn’t it be great if the PlayStation save could also be transferred across?
I guess the whole reason that’s not possible, never mind the PC save share coming to us, is because of Sony’s reluctance to open their console up to others. We’ve seen it before with Minecraft and the like, but isn’t it about time they realise we’re a multi-console world now, and allowing integration is a valuable functionality for all companies who are involved? Don’t make us choose!